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Now I normally do a what happens to the teams that lost in the second round of the playoffs piece, but I am focusing on the one situation that has basketball still scratching their heads in the total confusion, but I will briefly run through everything else. The Philadelphia 76ers came short again and have a lot to think about this season whether to give James Harden a super max deal or not, is Doc Rivers their coach next season? Will Joel Embiid ever get over the hump? A lot of potential chaos in Philly now the defending champion Bucks who went down swinging against the Celtics they simply need to upgrade the role players on the perimeter and have Khris Middleton healthy next season and everything should be ok for Milwaukee.
Out west the extraordinarily successful Memphis Grizzlies simply let not so efficient but well experienced Warriors team off the hook and lost that but gain more importantly major playoff experience and with a healthy Ja Morant will be and should major contenders in the west for years to come. Which leads to the subject of the piece and the biggest shock, disappointment and let down of this postseason the Phoenix Suns. Right away the first question is WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! The Suns who the best team in the NBA by a large margin and the prohibited favorites to win a title this year out of nowhere lost a series against the Dallas Mavericks after being up 2-0 which leads to a couple of questions going forward for this promising franchise and I will start with the biggest question of the summer.
Is DeAndre Ayton a Sun next season? Now coming into this season Ayton was NOT offered an extension but played the season out and did well with some dominate performances in the playoffs but the last time we saw him he played 17 minutes in pivotal game seven and was arguing with coach of the Monty Williams leaving Suns fans wondering will he be back? Unfortunately, Suns history tells us that with the notorious cheap and disgusting governor Robert Sarver at the controls he will likely not extend or match an offer sheet that Ayton receives from his restricted free agency this summer leading to Ayton’s exit and the Suns with a big hole to fill at center.
Speaking of Sarver, he is the next question for the Suns, will he be the downfall of this franchise very brief window at a championship, or will he be gone? With a particularly important and controversial investigation looming over him for possible sexual harassment and discrimination cases within the franchise, Sarver may not be with the Suns going into the next season which would be a blessing in disguise for them and hopefully can get a new governor to come in, spend the money to keep this team and title hopes alive.
Now we get to saddest part of this for me what to do with Chris Paul? One of my favorite point guards ever is at a crossroads now of whether this is it for him or is there still a chance for him to hold the Larry O’Brien trophy finally? I am going to go with heart here and say there is still a chance, but it is going to take to prideful soul searching for Paul, coach and dear friend Monty Williams and the Suns to do. Paul is up there in age (37) and has a ton of basketball miles on him especially being a smaller guard so him playing the amount of time he does going into the playoffs can no longer happened.
So, this offseason they need to find a backup or fringe starting point guard to take a bulk of Paul’s regular season minutes away, have Paul play about 50-60 games at about 25-30 minutes a game next season as much as load management bothers me sometimes this is case where it is needed for the Suns long term success. Also, Suns star Devin Booker needs to finally take that next step to being the guy that everyone believes he can be enough barking and start biting when it comes to Booker and his potential superstardom.
This summer can swing extremely either way for the Suns and hopefully it does not close the window on what could been a great run of success but instead it is opening that window a little bit more to hopefully and finally bring a championship to the valley.